Skill Level 2Occupations at Skill Level 2 typically involve the performance of tasks such as operating machinery and electronic equipment; driving vehicles; maintenance and repair of electrical and mechanical equipment; and manipulation, ordering and storage of information

Skill Level 3Occupations at Skill Level 3 typically involve the performance of complex technical and practical tasks that require an extensive body of factual, technical and procedural knowledge in a specialized field.

Skill Level 4Occupations at Skill Level 4 typically involve the performance of tasks that require complex problem-solving, decision-making and creativity based on an extensive body of theoretical and factual knowledge in a specialized field.

Legal Secretaries 3342

Legal secretaries apply specialized knowledge of the legal terminology and procedures in providing support to the legal professionals with communication, documentation and internal managerial coordination activities, in law offices, the legal departments of large firms and governments (ILO, 2018).

RISK PROBABILITY BASED ON THE SEMINAL FREY AND OSBORNE STUDY

PROFESSIONAL GROUP CHARACTERISTICS AND SIMILAR OCCUPATIONS

Administrative and Specialized SecretariesAdministrative and specialized secretaries provide organizational, communication and documentation support services, utilizing specialized knowledge of the business activity of the organization in which they are employed. They take supervisory responsibility for office clerks in the organization (ILO, 2018).

Office Supervisors

Administrative and Executive Secretaries

Medical Secretaries

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning are fast replacing the manual tasks formerly executed by legal secretaries. The law firms and other entities of this sector are beginning to invest in new technologies that perform tasks faster and at lower costs. Analysis and categorization of texts in the context of a particular legal case are more effective when carried out by intelligent systems. Basic review of documents is already performed in some companies in the legal industry, using autonomous methods (Artificial Intelligence) allowing a reduction in time by 2.5% over the year when comparing to a human secretary (NY Times, 2017). Finally, research related to litigation is one of the tasks that require more time as it entails the identification and collection of information needed to support the legal decision. This process begins with the analysis of the collected facts and ends with the communication of the results of this analysis. Intelligent systems accelerate the research process and the quality of analysis as this can be done on a wide range of structured and unstructured data (Financial Times, 2016).

These systems are able to interrelate legal text, cases and decisions in a way that a human secretary could not achieve with the same speed and effectiveness. The prospects for the occupation are dire, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2026 there will be a drop of 5% in this profession (Occupational Outlook Handbook , 2018)

However, these same intelligent systems cannot yet interact with the clients or help in the negotiations between opposing parties. For these tasks human secretaries can still assist lawyers in a more effective way although machine learning technologies such as chatbots are becoming sophisticated enough to make initial contact.

Case examples

Case Example 1

Case Example 2

Case Example 3

Case Example 1

The Ailira is a legal assistant based on artificial intelligence that offers help in legal issues. This assistant understands speech and can answer questions about legal issues. The software surveys a wide base of legislative data to answer the questions. It also creates and reviews legal documents based on a large number legislative articles accessed.

ROSS Intelligence is a tool that allows lawyers conduct advanced research in legal issues, getting answers quickly without having to consult various articles. The research is based on all accessible legislative items, comparing all possible cases to the issue at hand.